The quote is from none other than Star Tribune Politics and Team Leader, D.J. Tice:

America’s habitually low voter turnout is not a sign of our democracy’s frailty, but unmistakable evidence of its hearty good health.

(…)

Americans are not seriously afraid of the outcome of elections because, as a rule, nothing truly fundamental is at stake in our elections. The nation’s constitutional institutions are strong enough that basic freedoms are secure, no matter who gets elected.

But if what is meant is that voting should be made so effortless and convenient and, in a sense, trivial as to encourage voting even among those whose minds are uncomplicated by a single informed political thought — well, then it is challenging to imagine how the republic would be strengthened in the process.

-Pioneer Press, Oct 19th, 1994

Mr. Tice is blatantly wrong to even the most casual student of U.S. history and current events. In fact, his thesis statement (underlined above) is completely inverted from the truth:

The nation’s constitutional institutions are strong enough that basic freedoms are secure insecure, no matter who gets elected.

I’m sure Tice’s sanguine advice would have comforted the 74,000 Americans who suffered through the Japanese-American Internment. Or anyone who “published ‘false, scandalous, and malicious writing’ against the government” under the 1798 Sedition Act.

I doubt many Japanese-American’s berated themselves, wailing “Oh, if only we had elected Republican Wendell Willkie, instead of that disgraceful FDR, our constitutional freedoms would have remained secure!” After FDR destroyed Willkie in the 1940 Presidential Race, Willkie became a huge booster for FDR policies.

U.S. citizens know that their civil liberties are completely mutable, no matter who gets elected. Thus, many don’t bother to vote at all.

More worrisome than Tice’s ignorance is the complete and utter absence of a “mea culpa” from Tice in regards to the mainstream media. People think elections don’t matter because there aren’t many people out there telling them any differently. Sure, chucking civil liberties in war time might be a bipartisan pastime, but politicians and parties have varying degrees of success in promoting universal health care, strengthening the economy or protecting the environment: people need to know the record.

Tice is smart enough to know this - which makes his recent quote in City Pages ironic and sad:

In my own area, politics, we have a looming presidential election, the Republican convention, congressional races,” says D.J. Tice, the former Pioneer Press columnist who is now the Star Tribune’s politics and government team leader. “I just don’t like thinking about it, thinking about how we’re going to cover it. Who’s going to do the cop checks? Who’s going to the city council or the school board? Who’s going to keep an eye on those things?”

I guess people took your advice seriously D.J. Since it didn’t matter, they stopped paying attention.

They then stopped buying newspapers to read your column.

Ergo, your budget and staff has been cut to the bone so you now barely have the resources to help inform the rest of us who would like to develop at least one “single informed political thought” before next November.

According to the poll, Klobuchar hold a 20-point lead over Kennedy. Hatch is only 5-points ahead of Pawlenty, within the margin of error.

Some interesting hits from the poll’s breakdown:

Senate 

• By a 2-1 ratio, ads have made voters support Klobuchar over Kennedy. Kennedy’s ad-man Scott Howell has lost his touch.
• Klobuchar wins most age demographics, especially 65 and over, where she leads Kennedy by 38-points. The exception is 35-44 year olds which Kennedy takes by six.
• Kennedy has more support among individuals with an income between $75k - $90k, but Klobuchar has more support among the $100k+ crowd.  Who says the rich are anti-Democrat?

Governor

• Pawlenty keeps close to Hatch in the first two education demographics, but college graduates pull more from Pawlenty by a margin of 9-points.
• Economic breakdown is clear in this race.  Hatch takes those making under $75k, Pawlenty takes those who make more.
• Hatch wins the health care vote, Pawlenty the tax vote.  No surprise.
• Ads have been a bit of a wash in this race.  Interesting, all I feel is dirty after watching the negative ads in this race.

This tells us little about the “gaffe” effect in the Governor race, as the majority of respondents were interviewed beforehand.

I’ll link to MNCR’s trend lines as soon as he has them up.

I just got back from the Voting with a Mouse: How Bloggers Altered the Political Landscape event at the Humphrey Center.

The forum began with a Power Point from David Carr of the New York times. Karr used to write for various publications and alterative weeklies here in Minnesota.

Following the presentation Joe Bodell of MNCR, Michael Brodkorb of MDE, Eric Black of the Strib/Big Question and Carr held an interesting and informative panel.

The panel spent a large amount of time debating whether or not blogs worsen the partisan divides in society or merely reflect the fault lines that already exist.

Carr and Black argued that since blogs allow the reader to only associate with others that confirm and reinforce his own biases, blogs exacerbate partisan differences. The worry here was that the blogosphere would merely become the electronic equivalent of talk radio.

Despite their own partisan differences, Bodell and Brodkorb united in opposition to this argument. While conceding that individual blogs may amplify voices in the ideological extremities the blogosphere in total does reflect society.

I’ll post more discussion and some of my own impressions tomorrow in Part 2. Teaser: Part 3 is entitled “The End of Privacy”.

This is a great idea and I’m glad the Strib blogs are expanding. I think it was an especially good idea to give Kersten the next blog, for the following reasons.

1. The blog helps reveal Kersten’s bias in her columns. Bias isn’t a bad thing - everyone has one. The issue was it wasn’t always clear to a layman reader what Kersten’s bias was - I doubt many readers got as far as to read Kersten’s full bio (hidden below the Read More link) that reveals her past work for the Center for the American Experiment. In comparison, the blog’s outgoing links are a who’s who of conservative news magazines, core knowledge education links (i.e. ED Hirsch inspired curriculum), anti-gay marriage sites and conservative blogs. Kersten’s bias is now crystal clear.
2. The blog is a better outlet for Kersten’s research. Earlier this cycle there was a bit of confusion surrounding Kersten’s contribution to a Strib article on Keith Ellison’s past. Many readers thought that the wall between News and Opinion should be stronger. With a blog, Kersten can post her articles directly to the readership without jeopardizing the supposed “non-bias” of the news.
3. Kersten’s promise of a communication “exchange”. One of the strongest features of blogs over other types of media is the inherent exchange of opinion not only between readers, but between the readers and the author. As the population’s trust in traditional media falls, blogs can serve as a way to reconnect journalists and opinion-makers back to readers.It’s important that we move away from the current reaction - “You’re just a pinko/fascist newspaper so I’m going to dismiss everything you publish” to “I disagree with your position, but I know where you’re coming from.” Kersten has promised that: “Sometimes, I’ll update my columns with interesting new facts, or add insights from reader emails I get (with permission, of course).” We’ll see if she keeps her promise.